With Jevil prepared for battle, he stood strong as he glanced over his two opponents, Shuten Doji, and Ibaraki Doji.
There aren't that many oni that watch battles in the private arena due to the lack of time from the recovery. But surprisingly, Jevil noticed some youkai with wings or tails. "There are tengu and kitsune here...? I wonder what they're up to..." While he returned his focus to the arena, the referee began explaining the rules.
"Both sides have to take an attack for this to be deemed as a proper duel. The duel ends when one person is about to land a lethal strike to the opponent." "So a stop point duel... Since I need to tank a hit first I may as well try to gauge their strength." Jevil muttered to himself as he kept his scythe while the referee was now prepared to start the duel.
"Do you not fear, the possibility of bones being broken?" Shuten Doji calmly asked from a distance as he formed a stance, but with an unfazed Jevil who has fought worse, knew what he's worried about. "Let's just say, that I also have opponents that are just impossible for me to defeat.." "Begin!"
Shuten and Ibaraki immediately split off, attempting to surround Jevil from two different sides. He had already seen this kind of battle style before, so he had his own countermeasures. Both of his opponents were unarmed, so he softly absorbed Shuten's strike with his palm and attacked Ibaraki with his scythe. He then stepped back pulled Shuten to the right so that he ends up slamming into Ibaraki who slowed down. With his scythe missing Ibaraki, he immediately let go of Shuten and spun once and raised his scythe to strike down Shuten who lost his balance. This was dodged by rolling out of the way, but Jevil used the scythe that lodged into the ground as a stand to raise himself up. With a target in midair, Ibaraki attempted to strike Jevil, but Jevil twisted his body and landed a kick to the cheek, knocking him towards the still fallen Shuten. With both of his targets down and lined up, Jevil landed perfectly and quickly took out the scythe and moved the blade behind their necks. "Do you see now?" He brought up his left hand which absorbed Shuten's full-powered fist. Bruises could be seen and a cut was starting to drip out some blood. "I admit this strength may be dangerous if I performed a hard block, but I'm not like my archon Draxus who could just take the blow with minimal damage, sweep me down and grab my leg to strike me in the chin with a kick." Upon declaring victory, Shuten and Ibaraki sighed, as they finally understood what they are up against. So Jevil gave a little bit of comfort by saying what the actual current power levels of the lower ranks of the Sentinels. "The Officers, are weaker than the vice-chiefs overall, but I'd say you're around that level." "I see... Then we just don't stand a chance then." After the duel, the group had returned to the room.
"Are you not going to treat that injury?" Ibaraki Douji was somewhat curious as to why Jevil doesn't treat the wound. "It's kind of a bit of philosophy to be honest, if I want to gain that resistance, taking the hit and letting it heal naturally is the fastest way to adapt into the pain." The three of them were actually drinking, but Shuten and Ibaraki were slightly worried about the bleeding hand. "I see... So what are your plans now?" "Now that I have got your approval for a future meeting, I plan to visit Tengu, Kitsune, and Demon territory to get their approvals. Then I'd like to try to find the Shrine which is basically the centerpiece of this government." "So you plan to meet all the leaders... Then let me tell you about them." With Jevil's interest caught on what kind of leaders are in the other groups, Shuten Doji began to explain what he knew.
"The leader of the Kitsune group is a lady named Tamamo no Mae, she is a pretty cunning person, though she lies a whole lot so we Oni don't really get along with her." Jevil listened as he wrote down on his phone the name, how to meet them, and their appearance. "Next is the Tengu, the one that leads them is Sutoku Tenno. He is a straight-laced man who is more of a direct person, but he's pretty narcissistic." "Uwah..." "For the demons, it would be Count Vladimir. He's merciless, brutal, and powerful, he practically hates humans because of how inferior they are in power. You may end up in a bit of a scuffle with him." "So a prick with superiority complex?" "I guess you could say that, for youkai like us, he's pretty easy to get along with. He may think differently if you duel him though, seeing that you defeated us so easily, you may even shut his ego down too." "That's quite a bit of backtalking..." "Heh, we just want a good friend of ours to fix his damned attitude, it's much better if it ends that way." "Then what about the shrine?" Shuten pondered for a bit as he remembered some things about the shrine. "The shrine huh...? The people in the shrine are Satoris, they have the ability to read your heart and mind, so lying against them is practically impossible. This is why whenever an incident happens, anybody that remains in the scene will not be able to leave until the shrine maidens arrive and examine the area. They're truly dangerous, specially with the [Hero of Chaos and Enigma], Samael Qarhamon. The satori shrine maidens not only expose lies, but they can also copy any ability that exists in the hearts of their opponents." Jevil looked up as he sipped the sake, he immediately thought that it may be bad news if Draxus is to encounter and battle one of them. With the chance of an inactive soul's ability comes out, there is massive difficulty in fighting them. "Considering Draxus... It's definitely a tough battle, but I doubt he'd lose to anything like that." "Draxus...? You mean Archon Kingfisher? Is he that powerful?" "Yes, even my specialty of close-combat is useless against him. He goes for the most overwhelming attacks where you have little to no room of breathing, and he has a lot of supplements that could endlessly increase his power. He's much better when fighting an army, but the other two archons are pure insanity when battled." Being slightly drunk, Jevil started to boast about the abilities of those higher than him. "Archon Phoenix is too dangerous to fight, specially as a party. He can break the coordination of literally anything, and get them to perform friendly fire instead, all while eliminating targets while shrouded in mist. Archon Yatagarasu is impossible to beat in duels for us. One versus one is just purely his perfect form. Ah... I shouldn't be boasting about abilities here." "It's all fine, I did learn how great the Preeliance is. The only thing is... How do they treat other races?" "The guildmaster is an undine, and all of us that are higher in the castle are from either another world, or engaged with one." Jevil immediately stopped there before spilling anything else. "So we won't have to worry about discrimination? That's quite amazing..." "Do you know anybody in the shrine?" "Ah yeah, we can't generally talk ill about the shrine maidens and the Sosai, so I'll just tell their names as far as I know..." Jevil took note of the names of the Sosai, Tori, Socho, and the three shrine maidens that take action. He thanked Shuten for the help and prepared for his next trip immediately. He, at the very least joined them in lunch before departing.
"Good luck on your endeavors, and I hope we get to meet again." Shuten Doji shook hands once more with Jevil as they greeted their temporary farewells. "Yeah, may the future of this continent remain ripe in its unity." As Jevil left the underground city, a visitor came to the palace. "Come in." "Good day, Shuten Doji, it seems you had a visitor from the outside?" "Yes, he's come here for his vacation, along with some side missions by his higher ups." Shuten Doji turned and immediately bowed as he put his hand on his chest. A formal greeting, despite the recipient of the greeting was somewhat younger. She was wearing an outfit, which easily states what she is, a shrine maiden. She has a white [third eye] positioned on her heart with cords running to her head, wrists, and around the body. She had white hair, along with a ribbon tying up her back-length hair. But what makes her easily identifyable is the color of her eyes. One has a familiar freezing blue while the other is a tinge of gray and magenta. "So sir Jevil has come up to try and learn about the country's agriculture and government body?" "It is as you say..." "But then, the Sentinels finally made their move huh...? It's an actual vacation on their part, seeing as he did say each one visited a different country, I guess they're simply exploring." "What should we do then? Lady Abigail?" "Let them meet each one of our leaders and the hero, maybe one day we could unite with such a powerful force and finally be on the attacking side against those invaders after all." In front of Shuten was a very young shrine maiden. Despite her appearance, she looked somewhat frail, as she was escorted by a number of forces. "By the way, I heard from the tengu that you've sent some watchers to Preeliance, were you perhaps so interested in their sheer power?" "I am interested, because they were able to fend off such powerful invaders on their own. What's more, I heard that there are amazing members in the hierarchy." "So you mean that the Executors and the Archons may be a potential candidate for your daughter?" "It's embarrassing if it's spoken about Lady Abigail..." "Hehe, now that I heard, I'm interested to learn more about them. What else did you hear?" Shuten then spoke about the power of the archons that he heard from Jevil. "Annihilating armies, defeating a hero without even using magic... The Kingfisher is interesting... For a being from a different world, to be able to defeat hero parties on his on, and one on one without even the use of magic... He's only twenty one too, I'd like to try and meet him soon." The shrine maiden, Abigail had a bit of a cheeky smile on her face. Shuten Doji on the other hand, felt slightly troubled listening to the shrine maiden.